Osteoporosis

So the other day I was out shopping with my aunt and she asked me about Osteoporosis. To my delight, I crammed that so badly for my exams and was able to regurgitate all out again haha. So I thought I would make my second post about…

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is mainly characterized by the deterioration of bone micro-architecture, leading to reduced bone mass. It is classified as a progressive systemic skeletal disease.

The risks of osteoporosis are bone fragility, causing one to be prone to fractures.

Classification of Osteoporosis

I.                   Primary Osteoporosis

a.       Type I

b.      Type II

II.                Secondary Osteoporosis

Type I Primary Osteoporosis (AKA Postmenopausal Osteoporosis)

Pathogenesis: Accelerated bone loss due to the deficiency of OESTROGEN. This leads to the loss of Trabecular (spongy) Bone.
Thus, type I primary Osteoporosis only affects females.

Type II Primary Osteoporosis (AKA Senile Osteoporosis)

Pathogenesis: Normal bone loss with ageing, leading to loss of BOTH Trabecular and Cortical bone.
Type II primary Osteoporosis affects both males and females.

Secondary Osteoporosis

Causes secondary osteoporosis are mainly acquired from other disorders of the body.

Here are the list of causes:

-          Drugs

-          Endocrine disorders

-          Gastrointestinal diseases

-          Alcoholism

-          Immobilization (lack of exercise)

-          Nutrition deficiency

If you need to memorize this list, I suggest to use ‘DEGAIN’ as an abbreviation for each cause.

Diagnosis of Osteoporosis

The only method of diagnosing Osteoporosis is through DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry). The instrument measures the hip bone density to determine the severity or diagnose for osteoporosis.

There are blood tests done to measure the different biochemical parameters. However, they are not useful for diagnosis, and thus can only be used for monitoring purposes.